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I finally have a chance to provide an update on the second half of the tour now that we're back in Louisville. Fortunately, the reason for the lapse is that we were busy playing shows. The Burlington, VT show was a bunch of fun, and for me it felt great to be back in Burlington. If you've never been to Burlington, you should find an excuse to go hang out there. You won't want to leave. Red Square was great as always. I had performed there a bunch of times when I was in college (at UVM), and even though the faces around the place have changed since then, the feeling of being in familiar surroundings was still there. Evan's friend Will from Japhy Ryder, based out of Burlington, came out to blow on a couple tunes, and even let us crash at his spot after the show. We had a good time chatting and listening to D'Angelo. Will's good people.

The following night's show at the Big Easy in Portland, ME was also fun for me because it was the "hometown" gig, where I had to chance hang with and perform in front of a whole bunch of good friends and family. My buddy Bobby's band Adam and the Waxmen played with us and they put it down. I've been catching their shows whenever I'm back home, and I'm always impressed. It's also always a trip to see Bobby rocking the bass (and very well I might add), since all of us back home know him as one of the baddest drummers around. I hope we get the chance to do it again, those guys are not only a tight live band, but are some of the nicest guys you'll meet.

Finally, after the Portland gig, our next hit was at Mr. Beery's in Bethpage, NY. I'll admit that we walked into the place feeling a bit like the Blues Brothers showing up to play at the country bar ("We have both kinds of music: country and western"), but that feeling soon passed. As the cliche goes, you can't judge a book by its cover. The audience and staff at Beery's were extremely pleasant and responded enthusiastically to our music. You really can't ask for much more from a gig. It was also cool to see my brother, who drove down from New Haven to catch the show. We were joined by a hip-hop act called the Day Laborers as well as Harold's Trousers, a rock/hip-hop fusion group. The latter caught my attention right off the bat with a nicely done cover of "The Next Movement" by the Roots, which is a tune I really dig. They were great guys as well, and I wish we could have stuck around to catch their whole set, but we needed to hit the road and put some miles behind us for the trip home.

Overall, I think we got both the best and the worst. The worst, obviously, being the weather and van problems that forced us to cancel the first half of the tour. Fortunately, the gigs we were able to do turned out to be great experiences. To cite another cliche, Lady Luck threw us some lemons on this particular tour, but I think we made some damn fine lemonade. Despite being worn out by lack of sleep, I think I can speak for the whole band when I say that we came out of it in good spirits, all things considered. We're all looking forward to getting back out on the road and seeing some more of this great country (and beyond). Pictures were taken and will be posted soon. Thanks again to Diddy, Evan's mother, Will, and my parents for being so hospitable to us.

By the way, check out the music blog Backseat Sandbar, which posted an article about our initial difficulties.